By Tempestt Adams
February is National Children’s Dental Health Month and thousands of dentists across the country take time from their practices to help underserved children get the oral health care they need through Give Kids a Smile (GKAS), a national event providing free dental care to improve the dental health of underserved children. For the past sixteen years, the Junior League of Charlotte, Inc. (JLC) has lended its support to Give Kids a Smile Day, an annual volunteer program that provides free educational, preventative and restorative services to children from low-income families in Charlotte. This past GKAS Day, the JLC recruited four dental offices to participate and helped 61 children with a total of $40,638 in dental services through our community partners. Many of these children would otherwise be unable to eat, sleep or pay attention in school, ultimately risking more serious health problems, because of their poor oral health. GKAS aligns with the community focus of the JLC to ensure all children are school ready by focusing on the health and educational needs of children from birth to fifth grade in priority areas of Mecklenburg County.
JLC active member Candace Kline serves as the Chair for the GKAS committee. She explains, “The larger goal of the placement is to recruit Charlotte-area dentists to participate in GKAS Day, which is held annually on the first Friday in February. We partner with Communities in Schools and they arrange the dental screenings in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools to identify children in need.”
The Give Kids A Smile program is a part of the American Dental Association’s Foundation and was launched nationally in 2003. Through this program more than 5.5 million underserved children have received free oral health services. These free services are provided by volunteers, including approximately 10,000 dentists annually, along with 30,000 other dental team members.
When asked what makes her the most excited about her work with the GKAS committee Candace said, “I get excited about helping children get the dental care they desperately need. A lot of these kids have never been to the dentist and are living with tooth pain.” The JLC is honored to continue to support our community through Give Kids a Smile.
You can learn more about GKAS and its partners by visiting: https://www.adafoundation.org/en/give-kids-a-smile and https://www.cischarlotte.org/who-we-are/overview/.
